Auction with interest rate bidding

ABSTRACT

A method, apparatus, and system are provided for declining auction with interest rate bidding. According to one embodiment, an interest rate may be set for a transacted financial instrument, and information regarding the financial instrument and an interest rate at which the financial instrument is offered are published via a computer network. Offers from respective bidders to transact the financial instrument may be received, via the computer network, being expressed as offered interest rates at which the bidders are willing to transact the financial instrument. On the termination of a bid receiving process, whether at least one of the offers satisfies transaction criteria, as defined by a seller of the financial instrument, may be determined. If it is determined that at least one of the offers satisfies the transaction criteria, then at least one of the offers may be identified as an accepted offer.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to technical fieldof commerce automation and, in one exemplary embodiment, to auctioningwith interest rate bidding.

2. Description of Related Art

The Internet and the World Wide Web (“Web”) have changed the landscapeof information delivery and affected numerous faculties of life,including electronic commerce and entertainment. One area that hasbenefited from this technological development is the ability forindividuals to sell products over the Internet.

Auctions conducted across the Internet have become a very popular methodof selling goods and services (items). In a typical ascending priceauction, once a seller has submitted a request to sell an item, the itembecomes available for bidding, with the bidding to close typically atsome predetermined time (e.g., at noon, 3 days later). Potential buyersare able to view a description and possibly an image of the item, andsubmit one or more bids for the item. The potential buyer that submittedthe highest bid on the item at the end of the auction wins the auctionand is typically contractually obligated to purchase the item for theamount bid.

In a typical declining price auction, the price (e.g., dollar amount)for an item is lowered as potential buyers continue to bid on the itemfor a predetermined amount of time. The price is typically lowered inpredetermined increments depending on certain events, such as passage oftime or number of bids received. However, even with declining priceauctions in which the dollar amount of the item is incrementallylowered, the goal of the seller remains the same, i.e., to sell the itemfor the highest price possible.

A number of technical challenges exist with respect to the automation ofdeclining auctions between parties in a network-based commerce facility.For example, conventional declining auction technologies are at leastlimited in types of items that are offered for sale and types ofcompensation received for those items. Such technological challengesalso limit the performance of declining auctions and confine them toonly particular types and ways of trading, resulting further in lack ofcreativity and limited goals for trading on part of the participants(e.g., sellers and buyers).

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A method, apparatus, and system are provided for declining auction withinterest rate bidding. According to one embodiment, an interest rate maybe set for a transacted financial instrument, and information regardingthe financial instrument and an interest rate at which the financialinstrument is offered are published via a computer network. Offers fromrespective bidders to transact the financial instrument may be received,via the computer network, being expressed as offered interest rates atwhich the bidders are willing to transact the financial instrument. Onthe termination of a bid receiving process, whether at least one of theoffers satisfies transaction criteria, as defined by a seller of thefinancial instrument, may be determined. If it is determined that atleast one of the offers satisfies the transaction criteria, then atleast one of the offers may be identified as an accepted offer.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The appended claims set forth the embodiments of the present inventionwith particularity. The embodiments of the present invention, togetherwith its advantages, may be best understood from the following detaileddescription taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings ofwhich:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an embodiment of a computersystem;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an embodiment of a network;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating an embodiment of marketplace andpayment applications;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating an embodiment of a high-levelentity-relationship;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating an embodiment of an auction withinterest rate bidding;

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram illustrating an embodiment of a process for anauction with interest rate bidding;

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram illustrating an embodiment of a process for adeclining auction with interest rate bidding;

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram illustrating an embodiment of a process for anascending auction with interest rate bidding; and

FIG. 9 is a block diagram illustrating an embodiment of auctionarchitecture.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

A method, apparatus, and system are provided for declining auction withinterest rate bidding. According to one embodiment, an interest rate maybe set for a transacted financial instrument, and information regardingthe financial instrument and an interest rate at which the financialinstrument is offered are published via a computer network. Offers fromrespective bidders to transact the financial instrument may be received,via the computer network, being expressed as offered interest rates atwhich the bidders are willing to transact the financial instrument. Onthe termination of a bid receiving process, whether at least one of theoffers satisfies transaction criteria, as defined by a seller of thefinancial instrument, may be determined. If it is determined that atleast one of the offers satisfies the transaction criteria, then atleast one of the offers may be identified as an accepted offer.

The information concerning the financial instrument may be publishedfrom a server computer to a client computer via the computer network.The information regarding the financial instrument may be received fromthe seller of the financial instrument. Furthermore, the offers may bereceived from the respective bidders at the server computer fromrespective client computers operated by the bidders.

According to one embodiment, the bid receiving process may include adeclining auction including reducing the published interest rate atwhich the financial instrument may be offered for sale during the bidreceiving process. The reducing of the published interest rate may beperformed automatically by the server computer in response to, forexample, bidding activity, lack of bidding activity, and/or receipt of alower interest rate that is lower than the published interest rate.Furthermore, the published interest rate may be reduced to be equal tothe lower interest rate.

Similarly, the bidding process may also include an ascending auctionincluding increasing the published interest rate at which the financialinstrument may be offered for sale during the bid receiving process. Theascension of the published may be performed automatically by the servercomputer in response to, for example, bidding activity, lack of biddingactivity, and/or receipt of a higher interest rate that is higher thanthe published interest rate. Furthermore, the published interest ratemay be increased to be equal to the higher interest rate.

The financial instrument may include one or more interest-paying (IP)financial instruments or one or more interest-receiving (IR) financialinstruments. An IP financial instrument may refer to a financialinstrument for which the seller pays interest to the buyer of the IPfinancial instrument, while an IR financial instrument may refer to afinancial instrument for which the seller receives interest from thebuyer of the IR financial instrument.

The interest rate may include a reserve interest rate having a maximuminterest rate and/or a minimum interest rate. The maximum interest ratemay refer to the highest interest rate that the seller is willing to payto the buyer for an IP financial instrument, and the minimum interestrate may refer to the lowest interest rate that the seller is willing toaccept from the buyer for an IR financial instrument.

In the following description, for purposes of explanation, numerousspecific details such as logic implementations, opcodes, resourcepartitioning, resource sharing, and resource duplicationimplementations, types and interrelationships of system components, andlogic partitioning/integration choices may be set forth in order toprovide a more thorough understanding of various embodiments of thepresent invention. It will be evident, however, to one skilled in theart that the embodiments of the present invention may be practicedwithout these specific details, based on the disclosure provided. Thoseof ordinary skill in the art, with the included descriptions, will beable to implement appropriate functionality without undueexperimentation.

Various embodiments of the present invention will be described below.The various embodiments may be performed by hardware components or maybe embodied in machine-executable instructions, which may be used tocause a general-purpose or special-purpose processor or a machine orlogic circuits programmed with the instructions to perform the variousembodiments. Alternatively, the various embodiments may be performed bya combination of hardware and software.

Various embodiments of the present invention may be provided as acomputer program product, which may include a machine-readable mediumhaving stored thereon instructions, which may be used to program acomputer (or other electronic devices) to perform a process according tovarious embodiments of the present invention. The machine-readablemedium may include, but is not limited to, floppy diskette, opticaldisk, compact disk-read-only memory (CD-ROM), magneto-optical disk,read-only memory (ROM) random access memory (RAM), erasable programmableread-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-onlymemory (EEPROM), magnetic or optical card, flash memory, or another typeof media/machine-readable medium suitable for storing electronicinstructions. Moreover, various embodiments of the present invention mayalso be downloaded as a computer program product, wherein the programmay be transferred from a remote computer to a requesting computer byway of data signals embodied in a carrier wave or other propagationmedium via a communication link (e.g., a modem or network connection).

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an embodiment of a computersystem. As illustrated, the computer system (system) 100 may include anexemplary machine within which a set of instructions, for causing themachine to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussedherein, may be executed. The system 100 may operate as a standalonedevice or may be connected (e.g., networked) to other machines orsystems. In a networked deployment, the system 100 may operate in thecapacity of a server or a client machine in server-client networkenvironment, or as a peer machine in a peer-to-peer (or distributed)network environment. The system 100 may be a server computer, a clientcomputer, a personal computer (PC), a tablet PC, a set-top box (STB), aPersonal Digital Assistant (PDA), a cellular telephone, a web appliance,a network router, switch or bridge, or any machine capable of executinga set of instructions (sequential or otherwise) that specify actions tobe taken by that machine. Further, while only a single system 100 isillustrated, the term “machine” or “system” shall also be taken toinclude any collection of systems or machines that individually orjointly may execute a set (or multiple sets) of instructions to performany one or more of the methodologies discussed herein.

The computer system 100 may include a processor 102 (e.g., a centralprocessing unit (CPU) a graphics processing unit (GPU) or both), a mainmemory (memory) 104 and a static memory 106, which communicate with eachother via a bus 108. The computer system 100 may further include a videodisplay unit 310 (e.g., a liquid crystal display (LCD) or a cathode raytube (CRT)). The computer system 100 also includes an alphanumeric inputdevice 112 (e.g., a keyboard), a cursor control device 114 (e.g., amouse), a disk drive unit 116, a signal generation device 118 (e.g., aspeaker) and a network interface device 120 to connect the system 100with other systems or machines via a network (e.g., the Internet) 126.

The processor 102 may include multiple processors including one or moremulti-threaded processors having multiple threads or logical processors,and may be capable of processing multiple instruction sequencesconcurrently using its multiple threads. The processor 102 may furtherinclude one or more microprocessors, microcontrollers, fieldprogrammable gate arrays (FPGA), application specific integratedcircuits (ASIC), central processing units (CPU), programmable logicdevices (PLD), and similar devices that access instructions from systemstorage (e.g., main memory 104), decode them, and execute thoseinstructions by performing arithmetic and logical operations. Theprocessor 102 may also include one or more internal caches (not shown).

The bus 108 may also be known as the host bus or the front side bus, andmay be used to couple the processors 302 with the system interface. Bus108 may also be coupled with a control bus, an address bus, and/or adata bus (not shown). The control bus, the address bus, and the data busmay be multidrop bi-directional buses, e.g., connected to three or morebus agents, as opposed to a point-to-point bus, which may be connectedonly between two bus agents.

The memory 104 may include a dynamic storage device, a random accessmemory (RAM), or other storage device coupled with the bus 108 forstoring information and instructions 124 to be executed by the processor102. Memory 104 also may be used for storing temporary variables orother intermediate information during execution of instructions 124 bythe processors 124. The static memory 106 may include a read only memory(ROM) and/or other static storage device coupled with the processor 102via the bus 108 for storing static information and instructions for theprocessor 102.

Memory 104 may include a wide variety of memory devices includingread-only memory (ROM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM),electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), randomaccess memory (RAM), non-volatile random access memory (NVRAM), cachememory, flash memory, and other memory devices. Memory 216 may alsoinclude one or more hard disks, floppy disks, ZIP disks, compact disks(e.g., CD-ROM), digital versatile/video disks (DVD), magnetic randomaccess memory (MRAM) devices, and other system-readable media that storeinstructions and/or data. The memory 104 may store program modules suchas routines, programs, objects, images, data structures, program data,and other program modules that perform particular tasks or implementparticular abstract data types that facilitate system use.

The network interface device 120 may include a modem, a networkinterface card, or other well-known interface devices, such as thoseused for coupling with Ethernet, token ring, or other types of physicalattachment for purposes of providing a communication link to support alocal or wide area network 126, for example. Stated differently, thesystem 100 may be coupled with a number of clients and/or servers via aconventional network infrastructure 126, such as a company's Intranetand/or the Internet, for example.

The disk drive unit 116 may include a machine-readable medium 122 onwhich may be stored one or more sets of instructions (e.g., software124) embodying any one or more of the methodologies or functionsdescribed herein. The software 124 may also reside, completely or atleast partially, within the main memory 104 and/or within the processor102 during execution thereof by the computer system 100, the main memory104 and the processor 102 also constituting machine-readable media. Thesoftware 124 may further be transmitted or received over a network 126via the network interface device 120.

While the machine-readable medium 122 is illustrated in an exemplaryembodiment to be a single medium, the term “machine-readable medium”should be taken to include a single medium or multiple media (e.g., acentralized or distributed database, and/or associated caches andservers) that store the one or more sets of instructions. The term“machine-readable medium” shall also be taken to include any medium thatis capable of storing, encoding or carrying a set of instructions forexecution by the machine of the system 100 and that causes the machineto perform any one or more of the methodologies of the presentinvention. The term “machine-readable medium” shall accordingly be takento include, but not be limited to, solid-state memories, optical andmagnetic media, and carrier wave signals.

It is appreciated that a lesser or more equipped computer system thanthe example described above may be desirable for certainimplementations. Therefore, the configuration of system 100 may varyfrom implementation to implementation depending upon numerous factors,such as price constraints, performance requirements, technologicalimprovements, and/or other circumstances.

It should be noted that, while the embodiments described herein may beperformed under the control of a programmed processor, such as theprocessor 102, in alternative embodiments, the embodiments may be fullyor partially implemented by any programmable or hardcoded logic, such asfield programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), TTL logic, or applicationspecific integrated circuits (ASICs). Additionally, the embodiments ofthe present invention may be performed by any combination of programmedgeneral-purpose computer components and/or custom hardware components.Therefore, nothing disclosed herein should be construed as limiting thevarious embodiments of the present invention to a particular embodimentwherein the recited embodiments may be performed by a specificcombination of hardware components.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an embodiment of a network. Asillustrated, the network or architecture (architecture) 200 may includea commerce platform, such as a network-based marketplace or tradingplatform 202, to provide server-side functionality, via a network 126(e.g., the Internet) to one or more clients, such as client machines210-212. As illustrated, for example, a web client 206 (e.g., a browser,such as the Internet Explorer or the Netscape Navigator), and aprogrammatic client 208 may execute on their respective client machines210 and 212.

Turning specifically to the network-based marketplace 202, anapplication program interface (API) server 214 and a web server 216 maybe coupled to, and provide programmatic and web interfaces respectivelyto, one or more application servers 218. The application servers 218 mayhost one or more marketplace applications 220 and payment applications222. Furthermore, the application servers 28 may be coupled to one ormore databases servers 224 to facilitate access to one or more databases226.

The marketplace applications 220 may provide a number of marketplacefunctions and services to users that access the marketplace 202. Thepayment applications 222 likewise may provide a number of paymentservices and functions to users. The payment applications 222 may allowusers to quantify for, and accumulate, value (e.g., in a commercialcurrency, such as the U.S. dollar, or a proprietary currency, such as“points”) in accounts, and then to redeem the accumulated value forproducts (e.g., goods or services) that are made available via themarketplace applications 220. While the marketplace and paymentapplications 220 and 222, as illustrated, both form part of thenetwork-based marketplace 202, it will be appreciated that, inalternative embodiments of the present invention, the paymentapplications 222 may form part of a payment service that is separate anddistinct from the marketplace 202.

Further, while the architecture 200, as illustrated, may employ aclient-server architecture, embodiments of the present invention are notlimited to this architecture 200, and may equally well find applicationin a distributed, or peer-to-peer, architectures. The variousmarketplace and payment applications 220 and 222 may also be implementedas standalone software programs, which do not necessarily havenetworking capabilities.

The web client 206, it will be appreciated, may access the variousmarketplace and payment applications 220 and 222 via the web interfacesupported by the web server 216. Similarly, the programmatic client 206may access the various services and functions provided by themarketplace and payment applications 220 and 222 via the programmaticinterface provided by the API server 214. The programmatic client 208may, for example, be a seller application (e.g., the TurboListerapplication developed by eBay Inc., of San Jose, Calif.) to enablesellers to author and manage listings on the marketplace 202 in anoff-line manner, and to perform batch-mode communications between theprogrammatic client 208 and the network-based marketplace 202.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating an embodiment of marketplace andpayment applications. Multiple marketplace and payment applications220-222 may be provided as part of the network-based marketplace ortrading platform 202, as illustrated and described with respect to FIG.2. The network-based marketplace 202 may provide a number of listing andprice-setting mechanisms whereby a seller may list goods or services forsale, a buyer may express interest in or indicate a desire to purchasesuch goods or services, and a price may be set for a transactionpertaining to the goods or services. To this end, the marketplaceapplications 220 may include one or more auction applications 302 tosupport auction-format listing and price setting mechanisms (e.g.,English, Dutch, Vickrey, Chinese, Double, Ascending, Reverse andDeclining auctions etc.). The various auction applications 302 may alsoprovide a number of features in support of such auction-format listings,such as a reserve price feature whereby a seller may specify a reserveprice in connection with a listing and a proxy-bidding feature whereby abidder may invoke automated proxy bidding.

One or more of the auction applications 302 may include one or moredeclining auction applications and/or one or more ascending auctionapplications. A declining auction application may provide a dynamicprocessing mechanism for the trading of interest-paying financialinstruments (e.g., bonds, notes, and certificate of deposits (CD)) forwhich a buyer receives interest from the seller. For interest-payingfinancial instruments, the price (in currency) may remain constant andthe compensation for buying a particular financial instrument mayinclude interest rate. For example, a financial institution or anindividual (seller) may want to sell a $1000 bond to a buyer for aninterest rate that is lower than the maximum interest rate that theseller is willing to pay to the buyer. Potential buyers may bid on thebond in terms of interest rates that they are willing to accept. Theseller may then sell the bond to the buyer who bids the lowest interestrate. An ascending auction application may provide a dynamic processingmechanism for trading of interest-receiving financial instruments (e.g.,mortgage loans, personal loans, and credit cards) for which a buyer paysinterest to the seller.

One or more fixed-price applications 304 may support fixed-price listingformats (e.g., the traditional classified advertisement-type listing ora catalogue listing) and buyout-type listings. Specifically, buyout-typelistings (e.g., including the Buy-It-Now (BIN) technology developed byeBay Inc., of San Jose, Calif.) may be offered in conjunction with anauction-format (or other dynamic pricing format) listing, and allow abuyer to purchase goods or services, which are also being offered forsale via an auction, for a fixed-price that is typically higher than thestarting price of the auction.

Similarly, one or more fixed-interest applications 334 may supportproviding fixed-interest listing formats and buy-out listings. Using,again, the BIN technology as an example, a buyer may purchase afinancial instrument, which may also be offered for sale via an auction,at a fixed interest rate. The fixed-interest rate may be higher or lowerthan the starting interest rate offered at the auction depending on thenature of the financial instrument. For example, a CD may be sold for alower fixed-interest rate than the starting interest rate offered at theauction, while a credit card may be sold at a higher fixed-interest ratethan the starting interest rate offered at the auction.

One or more publishing applications 336 may be used to publish theinformation relating to auctions, such as the declining price auction.For example, in an embodiment where the financial instruments areoffered for sale over the Internet, the publishing applications 336 mayformat information about the financial instruments in a web page andprovide that web page over the Internet to potential buyers. Thepublishing applications 336 may also update the current offer price(e.g., $100) or interest rate (e.g., 10%), as necessary, when thecurrent offer price or interest rate is changed using the auctionapplications 302.

The store applications 306 may allow sellers to group their listingswithin a “virtual” store (e.g., a virtual bank), which may be brandedand otherwise personalized by and for the sellers. Such a virtual storemay also offer promotions, incentives and features that are specific andpersonalized to a relevant seller.

One or more reputation applications 308 may allow parties that transactutilizing the network-based marketplace 202 to establish, build andmaintain reputations, which may be made available and published topotential trading partners. Consider that where, for example, thenetwork-based marketplace 202 may support a person-to-person trading,users may have no history or other reference information whereby thetrustworthiness and credibility of potential trading partners may beassessed. The reputation applications 308 may allow a user, for examplethrough feedback provided by other transaction partners, to establish areputation within the network-based marketplace 202 over time. Otherpotential trading partners may then reference such a reputation for thepurposes of assessing credibility and trustworthiness.

The personalization applications 310 may allow users of the marketplace202 to personalize various aspects of their interactions with themarketplace 202. For example a user may, utilizing an appropriatepersonalization application 310, may create a personalized referencepage at which information regarding transactions to which the user is(or has been) a party may be viewed. Further, the personalizationapplications 310 may enable a user to personalize listings and otheraspects of their interactions with the marketplace 202 and otherparties.

The network-based marketplace 202 may support a number of marketplacesthat are customized, for example, for specific geographic regions. Forexample, a version of the marketplace 202 may be customized for theUnited Kingdom, whereas another version of the marketplace 202 may becustomized for the United States of America. Each of these versions mayoperate as an independent marketplace, or may be customized (orinternationalized) presentations of a common underlying marketplace.

The navigation of the network based-marketplace 202 may be facilitatedby one or more navigation applications 314. For example, a searchapplication may enable key word searches of listings published via themarketplace 202. A browse application may allow users to browse variouscategories, catalogues, or inventory data structures according to whichlistings may be classified within the network-based marketplace 202.Various other navigation applications 314 may be provided to supplementthe search and browsing applications.

In order to make listings, available via the network-based marketplace202, as visually informing and attractive as possible, the marketplaceapplications 220 may include, according to one embodiment, one or moreimaging applications 316 utilizing which users may upload images forinclusion within listings. The imaging applications 316 may also operateto incorporate images within viewed listings. The imaging applications316 may also support one or more promotional features, such as imagegalleries that are presented to potential buyers. For example, sellersmay pay an additional fee to have an image included within a gallery ofimages for promoted items.

One or more listing creation applications 318 may allow sellersconveniently to author listings pertaining to goods or services thatthey wish to transact via the network-based marketplace 202, and listingmanagement applications 320 may allow sellers to manage such listings.Specifically, where a particular seller has authored and/or published alarge number of listings, the management of such listings may present achallenge. The listing management applications 320 provide a number offeatures (e.g., auto-relisting, inventory level monitors, etc.) toassist the seller in managing such listings. One or more post-listingmanagement applications 322 may also assist sellers with a number ofactivities that typically occur post-listing. For example, uponcompletion of an auction facilitated by one or more auction applications302, a seller may wish to leave feedback regarding a particular buyer.To this end, a post-listing management application 322 may provide aninterface to one or more reputation applications 308, so as to allow theseller conveniently to provide feedback regarding multiple buyers to thereputation applications 308. Goods and services may also includefinancial instruments, such as CDs, notes, credit cards, bank accounts,mortgages, bonds, etc.

The dispute resolution applications 324 provide mechanisms wherebydisputes arising between transacting parties may be resolved. Forexample, the dispute resolution applications 324 may provide guidedprocedures whereby the parties are guided through a number of proceduresin an attempt to settle a dispute. In the event that the dispute cannotbe settled via the guided procedures, according to one embodiment, thedispute may be escalated to a third party mediator or arbitrator.

A number of fraud prevention applications 326 may implement variousfraud detection and prevention mechanisms to reduce the occurrence offraud within the network-based marketplace 202.

The messaging applications 328 may be responsible for the generation anddelivery of messages to users of the network-based marketplace 202. Suchmessages, for example, may advise users regarding the status of listingsat the network-based marketplace 202 (e.g., providing “outbid” noticesto bidders during an auction process or to provide promotional andmerchandising information to users).

The merchandising applications 330 may support various merchandisingfunctions that are made available to sellers to enable sellers toincrease sales via the network-based marketplace 202. The merchandisingapplications 330 may also operate the various merchandising featuresthat may be invoked by sellers, and may monitor and track the success ofmerchandising strategies employed by sellers.

The network-based marketplace 202 itself, or one or more parties thattransact via the network-based marketplace 202 may operate loyaltyprograms that are supported by one or more loyalty/promotionsapplications 332. For example, a buyer may earn loyalty or promotionspoints for each transaction established and/or concluded with aparticular seller, and may be offered a reward for which accumulatedloyalty points can be redeemed.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating an embodiment of a high-levelentity-relationship. As illustrated, according to one embodiment,various tables 400 may be maintained within the databases 226 (see FIG.2), and utilized by and support the marketplace and payment applications220 and 222 (see FIGS. 2 and 3). A user table 402 may contain a recordfor each registered user of the network-based marketplace 202, and mayinclude identifier, address and financial instrument informationpertaining to each such registered user. A user may, it will beappreciated, operate as a seller, a buyer, or both, within thenetwork-based marketplace 202. In one exemplary embodiment of thepresent invention, a buyer may be a user that has accumulated value(e.g., commercial or proprietary currency or interest rate), and is thenable to exchange the accumulated value for items (e.g., goods, services,and financial instruments) that are offered for sale by thenetwork-based marketplace 202.

The tables 400 may also include an items table 404 in which may bemaintained item records for the items that are available to be, or havebeen, transacted via the network-based marketplace 202. Each item recordwithin the items table 404 may furthermore be linked to one or more userrecords within the user table 402, so as to associate a seller and oneor more actual or potential buyers with each item record.

A transaction table 406 may contain a record for each transaction (e.g.,a purchase transaction) pertaining to items for which records may existwithin the items table 404. An order table 408 may be populated withorder records, each order record may be associated with an order. Eachorder, in turn, may be with respect to one or more transactions forwhich records may exist within the transactions table 406.

The bid records maintained within a bids table 410 may each relate to abid received at the network-based marketplace 202 in connection with anauction-format listing supported by an auction application 302. Aninterest rate table 422 may contain information relating to interestrates at they relate to the items (e.g., financial instruments) on sale.For example, the interest rate table 422 may include the start offerinterest rate, increments at which the interest rate may be declined,and the reserve interest rate (e.g. maximum and minimum interest rates)corresponding to each of the items. The interest rate table 422 mayinclude overlapping information from other tables, such as the bidstable 410, items table 404, and history table 414. A history table 414may maintain a history of transactions to which a user has been a party.

One or more attributes tables 416 may record attribute informationpertaining to items for which records may exist within the items table404. A feedback table 412 may be utilized by one or more reputationapplications 308 to construct and maintain reputation informationconcerning users. Considering only a single example of such anattribute, the attributes tables 416 may indicate a currency or interestrate attribute associated with a particular item, identifying thecurrency or interest rate for the relevant item as specified by aseller. The tables 400 illustrated here, and the like, may be includedin the databases 226 and/or may be, directly or indirectly, coupled witheach other. Furthermore, depending on various embodiments of the presentinvention, not all the tables 400 may be needed and conversely,additional tables, not illustrated here, may be added, as necessitated.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating an embodiment of an auction withinterest rate bidding. According to one embodiment, one or more sellers502 including financial institutions (e.g., banks, lenders, mutual fundcompanies, investment companies, and brokers) may publish one or moreitems including financial instruments (e.g., bonds, certificate ofdeposits (CDs), savings and money market accounts, home mortgages,automobile loans, personal loans, student loans, and credit cards) forsale using an ascending auction or a declining auction with interestrate bidding 504 over a network 126 (e.g., Internet). The publication ofthe items for sale may be performed using a website for the users 510 toaccess via a web browser (e.g., Internet Explorer and NetscapeNavigator) using a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) 508 (e.g.,http://www.financialinstrumentsauction.com).

The seller 502 may publish, for example, a $1000 bond in a decliningauction with an initial offer interest rate (initial interest rate) of,for example, 10%. The price of the bond (e.g., $1000), however, mayremain constant regardless of the initial interest rate and subsequentbiddings of the interest rate by the buyer 510, and the final interestrate at which the bond may be sold. The initial interest rate may be setby the seller 502 for the users 510 to start bidding on the item. Theinitial interest rate may be set automatically depending on variousfactors, such as item types, history of the time, time allowed for thedeclining auction, market rates, and reserve interest rate.

The reserve interest rate for the item may refer to the maximum interestrate and/or minimum interest rate for the item as set by the sellerdepending on the type of item. For example, the reserve interest ratefor a bond may be the maximum interest rate (e.g., 6%) that the seller502 is willing to pay; on the other hand, the reserve interest rate fora mortgage loan may be the minimum interest rate (e.g., 5%) that theseller 502 is willing to accept. Stated differently, for interest-payingitems (e.g., items on which the seller 502 is expected to pay interest(e.g., bonds, CDs, savings and money market accounts)), the seller 502may set a maximum interest rate that the seller 502 is willing to payand above which the seller 502 may not sell the item. Furthermore, forinterest-paying items, a declining auction may be used.

For interest-receiving items (e.g., items on which the buyer 510 isexpected to pay interest (e.g., home mortgages, automobile loans,personal loans, student loans, and credit cards)), the seller 502 mayset a minimum interest rate that the seller 502 is willing to accept andunder which the seller 502 may not sell the item. The determination ofthe reserve interest rate of items may also depend on other factors,such as item types, history of the time, time allowed for the decliningauction, market rates, and initial offer interest rate (initial interestrate). In contrast with the interest-paying items, forinterest-receiving items, an ascending auction may be used.

The buyers 510 may continue to bid on the items until a bid is acceptedor a triggering event, such as end of the predetermined time period forthe auction, occurs. The initial interest rate may be reduced by theseller, or automatically reduced responsive to bid values received frompotential buyers. The lowering of the initial interest rate, however,may be performed in predetermined increments or according to the bidsreceived. For example, the initial interest rate of 10% for the bond maybe reduced by 1% after every 2 hours of declining auction until itreaches 0.01%. The initial interest rate may be reduced according to thebids received; for example, a bid of 9.5% may reduce the initialinterest rate to 9.5% and later, a bid of 8.75% may reduce the initialinterest rate to 8.75%. The interest rate (initial or reserve interestrate) may not reach 0% and the minimum increment for reducing or biddingthe interest rate may be 0.01%. In an ascending auction, the seller mayaccept the bid with the highest interest rate that is also greater thanthe minimum interest rate. In a declining auction, the seller may acceptthe bid with the lowest interest rate that is also lower than themaximum interest rate.

The seller 502 may not be limited to a financial institution and mayinclude individuals and other parties, and the buyer 5 1 0 may not belimited to an individual and may include financial institutions andother parties. Also, it is anticipated, the seller 502 and buyer 510 mayinclude any combination of individuals, parties, and financialinstitutions just as the items for sale may include any variety andcombination of financial instruments.

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram illustrating an embodiment of a process of anauction with interest rate bidding. According to one embodiment, aninitial offer interest rate (initial interest rate) and a reserveinterest rate (e.g., maximum interest rate or minimum interest rate) maybe set for an item for sale on the declining auction by a seller atprocessing block 602. The item may then be published along with theinitial interest rate by the seller over a network (e.g., Internet) forusers to access at processing block 604. The users may access thepublication of the item using a web page via an Internet browser using aUniform Resource Locator (URL). The users may also use the web page tobid on the item and such bids are received at processing block 606. Thebidding by the users may be performed using various interest rates(e.g., 6.25%, 4.00%, and 2.90%). The interest rates bid by the users maybe entered as free-form numbers, or may be interest rates that arepresented to the user in a drop-down menu, from which the user may thenselect an interest rate.

A predetermined time period may be set for auctioning of the item. Thepredetermined time period may be set at the beginning of the auction, ormay be set during the auction if, for example, the item is not verypopular with the users. The time period may not be set and the item maybe on the auction until it is sold. In an embodiment where the timeperiod is set for the auction of the item, at decision block 608, theremaining time in the auction is determined. If no time is left, theauction may end at processing block 610. However, if there is some timeleft, the auction may continue with the lowering of the initial interestrate according to predetermined increments, or according to the receivedbids at processing block 612.

At decision block 614, according to one embodiment, the received bidsare evaluated for satisfying the initial interest rate and reserveinterest rate criteria. If any of the bids meet the criteria of initialinterest rate and reserve interest rate as set forth by, for example,the seller, the best of those bids may be accepted at processing block616. For example, in case of an interest-paying item (e.g., bond), thebid with the lowest interest rate (e.g., closest to zero) may beaccepted using a declining auction, and in case of an interest-receivingitem (e.g., home mortgage loan), the bid with the highest interest ratemay be accepted using an ascending auction. In the case of multipleitems for sale, multiple bids may be received corresponding to each ofthe multiple items. Furthermore, if only one bid satisfies the criteriaof the initial interest rate and the reserve interest rate, that one bidmay be accepted.

If none of the bids received satisfy the criteria of the initialinterest rate and the reserve interest rate, whether more bids arereceived may be determined at decision block 618. If the more bids arereceived, the auction using interest rate bidding may end at processingblock 610.

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram illustrating an embodiment of a process of adeclining auction with interest rate bidding. According to oneembodiment, the seller may set or assign an initial offer interest rate(initial interest rate) to an item to sell the item using a decliningauction with interest rate bidding at processing block 702. The item mayinclude an interest-paying (IP) item including a financial instrument onwhich the seller of the financial instrument is expected to pay interestto the buyer. Examples of IP items may include bonds, certificates ofdeposit (CDs), interest-bearing checking accounts, savings accounts,money market accounts, savings plans, and the like. Given that theseller is expected to pay the interest, according to one embodiment, theseller may set or assign a reserve interest rate including a maximuminterest rate (maximum rate) to the IP item at processing block 704. Themaximum rate may refer to the maximum rate of interest that the selleris willing to pay on the IP item. Stated differently, the seller mayreject any bids that are above the maximum rate and may accept thelowest bid, such as the one closest to 0%.

The seller may publish the IP item at the initial interest rate for thebuyers to bid at processing block 706. The initial interest rate for theIP item may be published, but the maximum rate may remain confidential.For example, the seller may publish a $1000 bond for sale at the initialinterest rate of 10% to start bidding, but may keep confidential themaximum rate of 6% that the seller is willing to pay. At the processingblock 708, according to one embodiment, the buyers may begin to bid onthe IP item. Using the published initial interest rate of 10%, thebuyers may start bidding at 10% and may bid as low as 0.01%, in minimumincrements of 0.01%. For example, one or more buyers may bid 8.25%,6.23%, 3.90%, and 2.76% for the bond, during which the price of the bond(e.g., $1000) may not change. One buyer may place one or more bids.

A predetermined time period may be assigned to the declining auction,which means the declining auction may automatically expire after acertain time period has ended and no acceptable bid has yet beenreceived for the IP item. According to another embodiment, nopredetermined time period may be assigned to the declining auction, andthe auction may remain open until the item is sold or other triggeringevent has occurred, such as change in financial markets, politicalsituation, or laws concerning the IP item or declining auction, and thelike. At decision block 710, time left of the predetermined time periodis determined. If the time period has expired, the declining auction mayexpire at processing block 712. If the time period has not yet expired,the declining auction may continue with the lowering of the initialinterest rate at processing block 714.

The initial interest rate for the IP item may be lowered in variousincrements based on various factors, such as time or bids received. Forexample, the initial interest rate of 10% for the bond may be reduced byan increment of 0.1% after every hour, reducing the rate of 10% to 9.70%after three hours. On the other hand, the initial interest rate may bereduced according to the bids received. For example, the initialinterest rate of 10% may be reduced from the highest to the lowest bidreceived, such as from 10% to 8.25% to 6.23% to 3.90% and then to 2.76%.If a lower bid (e.g., 3.90%) is received before a higher bid (e.g.,6.23%), the initial interest rate may remain at 3.90%, and may not beincreased to 6.23%.

The bids received may then be compared to the initial interest rate todetermine whether any of the bids qualify for further consideration atdecision block 716. If the bid rate (e.g., 12.5%) is higher than theinitial interest rate (e.g., 10%), the bid for the IP item (e.g., bond)may be rejected at processing block 718. Bids with interest rates lowerthan the initial interest rate may then be compared with the maximumrate to determine whether any of those bids qualify for furtherconsideration at decision block 720. If the bid rate (e.g., 8.25% and6.23%) is higher than the maximum rate (e.g., 6%), the bid for the IPitem (e.g., bond) may be rejected at processing block 718, and thedeclining auction continues with receiving bids at processing block 708.

Before accepting any of the bids (e.g., 3.90% and 2.76%) having lowerinterest rate than the maximum rate (e.g., 6%) for the IP item (e.g.,bond), whether more bids have been received is determined at decisionblock 722. If additional bids have been received, the process ofevaluating and analyzing those and other bids may continue at decisionblock 710. If no more bids received, the lowest bid (e.g., 2.76%) may beaccepted at processing block 724. With the acceptance of the lowest (orbest) bid, the declining auction with interest rate bidding may end atprocessing block 712.

Accepting the lowest bid may mean the seller may pay the accepted bidinterest rate to the buyer of the IP item. Continuing with the bondexample, the seller may pay 2.76% to the buyer for the $1000 bond thatthe buyer purchased with the accepted bid.

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram m illustrating an embodiment of a process of anascending auction with interest rate bidding. According to oneembodiment, the seller may set or assign an initial offer interest rate(initial interest rate) to an item to sell the item using an ascendingauction with interest rate bidding at processing block 802. The item mayinclude an interest-receiving (IR) item including a financial instrumenton which the seller of the financial instrument is expected to receiveinterest from the buyer. Examples of IR items may include homemortgages, automobile loans, personal loans, student loans, creditcards, and the like. Given that the seller is expected to receive theinterest, the seller may set or assign a reserve interest rate includinga minimum interest rate (minimum rate) to the IR item at processingblock 804. The minimum rate may refer to the minimum rate of interestthat the seller is willing to receive on the IR item. Stateddifferently, the seller may reject any bids that are below the minimumrate.

The seller may publish the IR item at the initial interest rate for thebuyers to bid at processing block 806. The initial interest rate for theIR item may be published, but the minimum rate may remain confidential.For example, the seller may publish a credit card for sale at theinitial interest rate of 7% to start bidding, but may keep confidentialthe minimum rate of 10% that the seller is willing to accept. At theprocessing block 808, the buyers may begin to bid on the IR item. Usingthe published initial interest rate of 7%, the buyers may start biddingat 7% and may bid in minimum increments of 0.01%. For example, one ormore buyers may bid 18.25%, 16.23%, 8.90%, and 7.76% for the creditcard. Also, one buyer may place one or more bids.

A predetermined time period may be assigned to the ascending auction,which means the ascending auction may automatically expire after acertain time period has ended and no acceptable bid has yet beenreceived for the IR item. According to another embodiment, nopredetermined time period may be assigned to the declining auction, andthe auction may remain open until the item is sold or other triggeringevent has occurred, such as change in financial markets, politicalsituation, or laws concerning the IR item or ascending auctions, and thelike. At decision block 810, time left of the predetermined time periodis determined. If the time period has expired, the ascending auction mayexpire at processing block 812. If the time period has not yet expired,the ascending auction may continue.

The seller, according to one embodiment, may have the option of loweringthe minimum rate, in various increments, depending on the bids receivedto accommodate more bids or, according to another embodiment, may choosenot to lower the minimum rate and reject all bids that are for interestrate lower than the minimum rate. The bids received with interest rateslower than the initial interest rate may then be compared with theminimum rate to determine whether any of those bids qualify for furtherconsideration at decision block 814. If the bid interest rate (e.g.,8.90% and 7.76%) is lower than the minimum rate (e.g., 10%), and eventhough it is higher than the initial rate (e.g., 7%), such bid for theIR item (e.g., credit card) may be rejected at processing block 816, andthe ascending auction continues with the receiving of bids at processingblock 808.

Before accepting any of the bids (e.g., 18.25% and 16.23%) having higherinterest rate than the minimum rate (e.g., 10%) for the IR item (e.g.,credit cards), whether more bids have been received is determined atdecision block 818. If additional bids have been received, the processof evaluating and analyzing those and other bids may continue atdecision block 810. If no more bids are received, the highest bid (e.g.,18.25%) may be accepted at processing block 820. With the acceptance ofthe highest (or best) bid, the ascending auction with interest ratebidding may end at processing block 812.

Accepting the highest bid may mean that the seller has received andaccepted a bid interest rate from a buyer of the IR item that satisfiesthe seller's criteria for selling the IR item. Continuing with thecredit card example, the buyer may pay 18.25% to the seller for, forexample, carrying a balance on the credit card that the buyer purchasedwith the accepted bid.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram illustrating an embodiment of auctionarchitecture. According to one embodiment, the auction architecture 900,as illustrate here, may include any variety and combinations of one ormore client computers and/or one or more server computers directly orindirectly coupled with each other over a network 126 (e.g., theInternet). The auction architecture 900 may also include any number ofcomponents and/or elements also directly or indirectly connected witheach other and with the one or more client computers and/or one or moreserver computers over the network 126.

According to one embodiment, an auction, including an ascending auctionor a declining acution, may be performed using one or more auctionapplications 302 as illustrated and described with reference to FIG. 3.The one or more auction applications 302 may include one or moreascending an/or declining auction applications 902 to perform variousembodiments of the auction. The one or more ascending and/or decliningauction applications 902 may further include one or more ascendingand/or declining auction interest rate applications 904 to performvarious embodiments of the ascending and declining auctions includingauctions using interest rate biddings. The various auction applications302, 902-904 may be used to facilitate a processor, such as theprocessor 102 of FIG. 1, to perform the embodiments of the presentapplication.

The auction applications 302, 902-904 may, directly or indirectly,interface or be coupled with one or more databases, such as thedatabases 226 of FIG. 2. The one or more databases 226 may include aninterest rate table 422 and a history table 414. The interest rate table422 may be used to store information relating to interest rates of aparticular item. The information may include various interest ratesassociated with a number of items, such as initial offer interest rate,reserve interest rate including maximum interest rate and/or minimuminterest rate, and interest rates bid by various buyers or a particularitem, and the like. Various items may include various financialinstruments including interest-receiving (IR) items and interest-paying(IP) items. IR items may refer to those financial instruments on whichthe seller is expected to receive interest from the buyer upon purchaseof an IR item. IP items may refer to those financial instruments onwhich the seller is expected to pay interest to the buyer upon purchaseof an IP item.

The history table 414 may include historical information about variousitems, as described above, that have been sold or offered for sale usingthe declining auction with interest rate bidding. Furthermore, thehistory table 414 may contain information regarding various registeredusers of the declining auction. The registered users may or may not haveparticipated in a declining auction and/or purchased an item. Forexample, a declining auction interest rate application 904 may query theinterest rate table 422 and the history table 414 to determine whetheritems similar to the one currently on sale have been sold and theinterest rate at which the they were sold using the declining auctionwith interest rate bidding. Such information may be used by thedeclining auction interest rate application 904 to, for example, eitherautomatically list the initial interest rate and/or reserve interestrate for the item or allow the seller to extract the collectedinformation to determine the initial interest rate and/or reserveinterest rate.

The publishing application 336 may perform embodiments includingprocesses relating to publishing the information with regard to thedeclining auction. For example, in an embodiment where an item may beoffered for sale over the Internet 126, the publishing application 336may format information about the item on a web page and have that webpage available over the Internet 126 to potential buyers. Furthermore,the publishing application 336 may also update the current initialinterest rate as the current initial interest rate may change by thedeclining auction applications 902-904.

For simplicity, a single auction is used and illustrated as an example.However, embodiments of the present invention provide for a plurality ofauctions, including ascending auctions and declining auctions, to takeplace sequentially and/or simultaneously. A plurality of auctions may beconducted on the same or different server computers and even ondifferent processors within the same server computer. Furthermore, asingle auction or a plurality of auctions may be performed in the sameor different processors, and threads, etc. Moreover, any combination ofsoftware, hardware, firmware, etc., may be used to perform variousembodiments of the present invention. Embodiments of the presentinvention may also provide for programming the functionality requiredfor performing the various embodiments using any programming technology,paradigm, and/or language that exist today or may be developed in thefuture, including, but not limited to parallel programming,object-oriented technology, distributed processing, multi-processing,Java, C, C++, and assembly language, and the like.

It should be appreciated that reference throughout this specification to“one embodiment” or “an embodiment” means that a particular feature,structure or characteristic described in connection with the embodimentis included in at least one embodiment of the present invention.Therefore, it is emphasized and should be appreciated that two or morereferences to “an embodiment” or “one embodiment” or “an alternativeembodiment” in various portions of this specification are notnecessarily all referring to the same embodiment. Furthermore, theparticular features, structures or characteristics may be combined assuitable in one or more embodiments of the invention.

Similarly, it should be appreciated that in the foregoing description ofexemplary embodiments of the invention, various features of theinvention are sometimes grouped together in a single embodiment, figure,or description thereof for the purpose of streamlining the disclosureaiding in the understanding of one or more of the various inventiveaspects. This method of disclosure, however, is not to be interpreted asreflecting an intention that the claimed invention requires morefeatures than are expressly recited in each claim. Rather, as thefollowing claims reflect, inventive aspects lie in less than allfeatures of a single foregoing disclosed embodiment. Thus, the claimsfollowing the detailed description are hereby expressly incorporatedinto this detailed description, with each claim standing on its own as aseparate embodiment of this invention.

While certain exemplary embodiments have been described and shown in theaccompanying drawings, it is to be understood that such embodiments aremerely illustrative of and not restrictive, and that the embodiments ofthe present invention are not to be limited to specific constructionsand arrangements shown and described, since various other modificationsmay occur to those ordinarily skilled in the art upon studying thisdisclosure.

1. A method to set an interest rate for a transacted financialinstrument, the method including: publishing, via a computer network,information regarding the financial instrument and an interest rate atwhich the financial instrument is offered; receiving, via the computernetwork, offers from respective bidders to transact the financialinstrument, the offers being expressed as offered interest rates atwhich the bidders are willing to transact the financial instrument; onthe termination of a bid receiving process, determining whether at leastone of the offers satisfies transaction criteria, defined by a seller ofthe financial instrument; and if it is determined that at least one ofthe offers satisfies the transaction criteria, identifying the at leastone of the offers as an accepted offer.
 2. The method of claim 1,wherein the information concerning the financial instrument is publishedfrom a server computer to a client computer via the computer network. 3.The method of claim 1, further including receiving the informationregarding the financial instrument from the seller.
 4. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the information regarding the financial instrumentincludes one or more of the following: price of the financialinstrument, details about the financial instrument, maximum or minimumterm of the financial instrument, and benefits of purchasing thefinancial instrument.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the offers arereceived from the respective bidders at the server computer fromrespective client computers operated by the bidders.
 6. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the bid receiving process is a declining auction, themethod including reducing the published interest rate at which thefinancial instrument is offered for sale during the bid receivingprocess.
 7. The method of claim 6, wherein the reducing of the publishedinterest rate is performed automatically by the server computerresponsive to at least one of bidding activity and lack of biddingactivity.
 8. The method of claim 7, wherein the reducing of thepublished interest rate is performed by the server computer responsiveto receipt of a lower interest rate that is lower than the publishedinterest rate.
 9. The method of claim 8, wherein the published interestrate is reduced to be equal to the lower interest rate.
 10. The methodof claim 1, wherein the bid receiving process is an ascending auction,the method including increasing the published interest rate at which thefinancial instrument is offered for sale during the bid receivingprocess.
 11. The method of claim 10, wherein the ascension of thepublished interest rate is performed automatically by the servercomputer responsive to at least one of bidding activity and lack ofbidding activity.
 12. The method of claim 11, wherein the ascension ofthe published interest rates is performed by the server computerresponsive to receipt of a higher interest rate that is higher than thepublished interest rate.
 13. The method of claim 12, wherein thepublished interest rate is increased to be equal to the higher interestrate.
 14. The method of claim 1, wherein the financial instrumentcomprises at least one of the following: an interest-paying (IP)financial instrument including one or more of the following: a bond, acertificate of deposit, an interest-bearing checking account, a savingsaccount, and a money market account; and an interest-receiving (IR)financial instrument including one or more of the following: a homemortgage loan, an automobile loan, a personal loan, a student loan, anda credit card.
 15. The method of claim 1, wherein the interest rate setby the seller for the transacted financial instrument comprises at oneof the following: a maximum interest rate having a highest interest ratethat the seller is willing to pay to a buyer for the IP financialinstrument; and a minimum interest rate having a lowest interest ratethat the seller is willing to accept from the buyer for the IR financialinstrument.
 16. A method, comprising: setting an interest rate and amaximum interest rate for an interest-paying (IP) item at a firstcomputer coupled with a second computer over a network, wherein themaximum rate includes a highest interest rate that a seller is willingto pay to a buyer for the IP item; publishing the IP item for sale atthe interest rate at the second computer; initiating a declining auctionto publish the IP item for sale at declining interest rates at thesecond computer, responsive to bidding activity registered after thefirst computer; upon termination of the declining auction, determiningwhether one or more bids have been received at an interest rate lowerthan the maximum interest rate set at the first computer; and if so,selecting a lowest interest rate bid as a winning bid.
 17. The method ofclaim 16, further comprising: placing the one or bids at the secondcomputer by one or more potential buyers; and receiving the one or morebids at the first computer by the seller.
 18. The method of claim 16,wherein the IP item comprises one or more financial instrumentsincluding at least one of the following: a bond, a certificate ofdeposit, an interest-bearing checking account, a savings account, and amoney market account.
 19. The method of claim 16, wherein thepredetermined time is modified based on at least one of the followingfactors: number of buyers reviewing the IP item, number of bids receivedfor the IP item, current interest rate, and selling price of similar orrelated IP items in other declining auctions.
 20. The method of claim16, wherein the setting of the interest rate comprises at least one ofthe following: setting the interest rate by the seller or automaticallysetting the interest rate based on one or more factors includinghistorical information regarding 1P items similar to the IP item, buyerinput, maximum rate of the IP item.
 21. The method of claim 16, whereinthe first computer comprises a server computer and the second computercomprises a server computer or a client computer.
 22. A method,comprising: setting an interest rate and a minimum interest rate for aninterest-receiving (IR) item at a first computer coupled with a secondcomputer over a network, wherein the minimum rate includes a lowestinterest rate that a seller is willing to accept from a buyer for the IRitem; publishing the IP item for sale at the interest rate at the secondcomputer; initiating an ascending auction to publish the IR item forsale at ascending interest rates at the second computer, responsive tobidding activity registered after the first computer; upon terminationof the ascending auction, determining whether one or more bids have beenreceived at an interest rate higher than the minimum interest rate setat the first computer; and if so, selecting a highest interest rate bidas a winning bid.
 23. The method of claim 22, further comprising:placing the one or bids at the second computer by one or more potentialbuyers; and receiving the one or more bids at the first computer by theseller.
 24. The method of claim 22, wherein the IR item comprises one ormore financial instruments including at least one of the following: ahome mortgage loan, an automobile loan, a personal loan, a student loan,and a credit card.
 25. The method of claim 22, wherein the predeterminedtime is modified based on at least one of the following factors: numberof buyers reviewing the IP item, number of bids received for the IRitem, current interest rate, and selling price of similar or related IRitems in other ascending auctions.
 26. The method of claim 22, whereinthe setting of the interest rate comprises at least one of thefollowing: setting the interest rate by the seller or automaticallysetting the interest rate based on one or more factors includinghistorical information regarding IR items similar to the IR item, buyerinput, maximum rate of the IR item.
 27. The method of claim 22, whereinthe first computer comprises a server computer and the second computercomprises a server computer or a client computer.
 28. An apparatus,comprising: a client computer to publish information regarding afinancial instrument and an interest rate at which the financialinstrument is offered, the client computer to publish the information ata request from a server computer via a computer network; and the servercomputer, coupled with the client computer, to receive offers fromrespective bidders to transact the financial instrument, the offersbeing expressed as offered interest rates at which the bidders arewilling to transact the financial instrument, wherein the servercomputer to receive the offers from respective client computers operatedby the bidders, on the termination of a bid receiving process, determinewhether at least one of the offers satisfies transaction criteria,defined by a seller of the financial instrument, and if it is determinedthat at least one of the offers satisfies the transaction criteria,identifying the at least one of the offers as an accepted offer.
 29. Theapparatus of claim 28, wherein the server computer is further to receivethe information regarding the financial instrument from the seller. 30.The apparatus of claim 28, wherein the bid receiving process is adeclining auction, the method including the published interest rate atwhich the financial instrument is offered for sale during the bidreceiving process, the published interest rate is performedautomatically by the server computer responsive to at least one ofbidding activity and lack of bidding activity.
 31. The apparatus ofclaim 28, wherein the bid receiving process is an ascending auction, themethod including increasing the published interest rate at which thefinancial instrument is offered for sale during the bid receivingprocess, the published interest rate is performed automatically by theserver computer responsive to at least one of bidding activity and lackof bidding activity.
 32. A system, comprising: a first storage medium; afirst computer, coupled with the first storage medium, to publishinformation regarding a financial instrument and an interest rate atwhich the financial instrument is offered, the first computer to publishthe information at a request from a second computer via a computernetwork; and the second computer, coupled with the first computer and asecond storage medium, to receive offers from respective bidders totransact the financial instrument, the offers being expressed as offeredinterest rates at which the bidders are willing to transact thefinancial instrument, wherein the second computer to receive the offersfrom respective computers operated by the bidders, on the termination ofa bid receiving process, determine whether at least one of the offerssatisfies transaction criteria, defined by a seller of the financialinstrument, and if it is determined that at least one of the offerssatisfies the transaction criteria, identifying the at least one of theoffers as an accepted offer.
 33. The system of claim 32, wherein thefirst computer includes a client computer, and the second computerincludes a server computer in a client-server architecture.
 34. Thesystem of claim 32, wherein the first computer includes a servercomputer, and the second computer includes another server computer in apeer-peer architecture.
 35. The system of claim 32, wherein therespective computers operated by the bidders include one or more clientcomputers.
 36. The system of claim 32, wherein the computer networkincludes a single network or a plurality of networks including at leastone of the following: a wide area network, a local area network, anintranet, and the Internet.
 37. The system of claim 32, wherein thefirst computer and the second computer each comprises one or moreprocessors including at least one of the following: one or moremicroprocessors, one or more microcontrollers, one or more fieldprogrammable gate arrays (FPGA), one or more application specificintegrated circuits (ASIC), one or more central processing units (CPU),and one or more programmable logic devices (PLD).
 38. A machine-readablemedium having stored thereon data representing sets of instructionswhich, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to: publish, via acomputer network, information regarding the financial instrument and aninterest rate at which the financial instrument is offered; receive, viathe computer network, offers from respective bidders to transact thefinancial instrument, the offers being expressed as offered interestrates at which the bidders are willing to transact the financialinstrument; on the termination of a bid receiving process, determinewhether at least one of the offers satisfies transaction criteria,defined by a seller of the financial instrument; and if it is determinedthat at least one of the offers satisfies the transaction criteria,identify the at least one of the offers as an accepted offer.
 39. Themachine-readable medium of claim 38, wherein the information concerningthe financial instrument is published from a server computer to a clientcomputer via the computer network.
 40. The machine-readable medium ofclaim 38, wherein the sets of instructions which, when executed by themachine, further cause the machine to receive the information regardingthe financial instrument from the seller.
 41. The machine-readablemedium of claim 38, wherein the information regarding the financialinstrument includes one or more of the following: price of the financialinstrument, details about the financial instrument, maximum or minimumterm of the financial instrument, and benefits of purchasing thefinancial instrument.
 42. The machine-readable medium of claim 38,wherein the offers are received from the respective bidders at theserver computer from respective client computers operated by thebidders.
 43. The machine-readable medium of claim 38, wherein the bidreceiving process is a declining auction, the method including reducingthe published interest rate at which the financial instrument is offeredfor sale during the bid receiving process.
 44. The machine-readablemedium of claim 43, wherein the reducing of the published interest rateis performed automatically by the server computer responsive to at leastone of bidding activity and a lack of bidding activity.
 45. Themachine-readable medium of claim 44, wherein the reducing of thepublished interest rate is performed by the server computer responsiveto receipt of a lower interest rate that is lower than the publishedinterest rate.
 46. The machine-readable medium of claim 45, wherein thepublished interest rate is reduced to be equal to the lower interestrate.
 47. The machine-readable medium of claim 38, wherein the bidreceiving process is an ascending auction, the method includingincreasing the published interest rate at which the financial instrumentis offered for sale during the bid receiving process.
 48. Themachine-readable medium of claim 47, wherein the ascension of thepublished interest rate is performed automatically by the servercomputer responsive to at least one of bidding activity and a lack ofbidding activity.
 49. The machine-readable medium of claim 48, whereinthe ascension of the published interest rates is performed by the servercomputer responsive to receipt of a higher interest rate that is higherthan the published interest rate.
 50. The machine-readable medium ofclaim 49, wherein the published interest rate is increased to be equalto the higher interest rate.
 51. The machine-readable medium of claim38, wherein the financial instrument comprises at least one of thefollowing: an interest-paying (1P) financial instrument including one ormore of the following: a bond, a certificate of deposit, aninterest-bearing checking account, a savings account, and a money marketaccount; and an interest-receiving (IR) financial instrument includingone or more of the following: a home mortgage loan, an automobile loan,a personal loan, a student loan, and a credit card.
 52. Themachine-readable medium of claim 38, wherein the interest rate set bythe seller for the transacted financial instrument comprises at one ofthe following: a maximum interest rate having a highest interest ratethat the seller is willing to pay to a buyer for the IP financialinstrument; and a minimum interest rate having a lowest interest ratethat the seller is willing to accept from the buyer for the IR financialinstrument.
 53. A machine-readable medium having stored thereon datarepresenting sets of instructions which, when executed by a machine,cause the machine to: set an interest rate and a maximum interest ratefor an interest-paying (1P) item at a first computer coupled with asecond computer over a network, wherein the maximum rate includes ahighest interest rate that a seller is willing to pay to a buyer for theIP item; publish the IP item for sale at the interest rate at the secondcomputer; initiate a declining auction to publish the IP item for saleat declining interest rates at the second computer, responsive tobidding activity registered after the first computer; upon terminationof the declining auction, determine whether one or more bids have beenreceived at an interest rate lower than the maximum interest rate set atthe first computer; and if so, select a lowest interest rate bid as awinning bid.
 54. The machine-readable medium of claim 53, wherein thesets of instructions which, when executed by the machine, further causethe machine to: place the one or bids at the second computer by one ormore potential buyers; and receive the one or more bids at the firstcomputer by the seller.
 55. The machine-readable medium of claim 53,wherein the IP item comprises one or more financial instrumentsincluding at least one of the following: a bond, a certificate ofdeposit, an interest-bearing checking account, a savings account, and amoney market account.
 56. The machine-readable medium of claim 53,wherein the predetermined time is modified based on at least one of thefollowing factors: number of buyers reviewing the IP item, number ofbids received for the IP item, current interest rate, and selling priceof similar or related IP items in other declining auctions.
 57. Themachine-readable medium of claim 53, wherein the setting of the interestrate comprises at least one of the following: setting the interest rateby the seller or automatically setting the interest rate based on one ormore factors including historical information regarding IP items similarto the IP item, buyer input, maximum rate of the IP item.
 58. Themachine-readable medium of claim 53, wherein the first computercomprises a server computer and the second computer comprises a servercomputer or a client computer.
 59. A machine-readable medium havingstored thereon data representing sets of instructions which, whenexecuted by a machine, cause the machine to: set an interest rate and aminimum interest rate for an interest-receiving (IR) item at a firstcomputer coupled with a second computer over a network, wherein theminimum rate includes a lowest interest rate that a seller is willing toaccept from a buyer for the IR item; publish the IP item for sale at theinterest rate at the second computer; initiate an ascending auction topublish the IR item for sale at ascending interest rates at the secondcomputer, responsive to bidding activity registered after the firstcomputer; upon termination of the ascending auction, determine whetherone or more bids have been received at an interest rate higher than theminimum interest rate set at the first computer; and if so, select ahighest interest rate bid as a winning bid.
 60. The machine-readablemedium of claim 59, wherein the sets of instructions which, whenexecuted by the machine, further cause the machine to: place the one orbids at the second computer by one or more potential buyers; and receivethe one or more bids at the first computer by the seller.
 61. Themachine-readable medium of claim 59, wherein the IR item comprises oneor more financial instruments including at least one of the following: ahome mortgage loan, an automobile loan, a personal loan, a student loan,and a credit card.
 62. The machine-readable medium of claim 59, whereinthe predetermined time is modified based on at least one of thefollowing factors: number of buyers reviewing the IP item, number ofbids received for the IR item, current interest rate, and selling priceof similar or related IR items in other ascending auctions.
 63. Themachine-readable medium of claim 59, wherein the setting of the interestrate comprises at least one of the following: setting the interest rateby the seller or automatically setting the interest rate based on one ormore factors including historical information regarding IR items similarto the IR item, buyer input, maximum rate of the IR item.
 64. Themachine-readable medium of claim 59, wherein the first computercomprises a server computer and the second computer comprises a servercomputer or a client computer.